Technical Field
The present invention relates to a steering wheel provided with a vibration generator that vibrates a rim of the steering wheel.
Background Arts
Recently, as a safe driving support system for an automobile, known is a technology for providing a warning to a driver by generating a warning sound and vibrating a rim of a steering wheel when, for example, an automobile is going to move out from its own lane or is going to move into an opposite lane. By using such a safe driving support system, it becomes possible to obviate collisions of automobiles and so on.
Further, at present, it is also proposed to vibrate a rim of a steering wheel in order to provide various kinds of information (e.g. a running condition of an automobile) to a driver. Such a technology is being developed toward its practical use.
In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H7-10007 (Patent Document 1) discloses a steering wheel whose rim is vibrated. As shown in FIG. 13, the steering wheel 60 disclosed in the Patent Document 1 includes a ring-shaped rim 61, a boss 62 disposed at the center of the rim 61, and left and right spokes 63 connecting the rim 61 with the boss 62. The boss 62 and the spokes 63 are usually covered by a pad 64 that is indicated by dotted lines.
A DC motor 65 is mounted on each of the spokes 63 behind the pad 64. An eccentric weight 66 is attached to a rotating shaft of the motor 65. Therefore, the motors 65 are vibrated when the eccentric weights 66 are rotated by passing electric currents from a power source to the motors 65. The vibrations of the motors 65 are transmitted to the rim 61 through the spokes 63, and thereby an entire of the rim 61 can be vibrated.
The steering wheel 60 disclosed in the Patent Document 1 also includes a current regulator 67 that regulates the electric currents passing to the motors 65, and a switch 68 that switches over whether or not to pass the electric currents to the current regulator 67. In this case, a driver can selectively pass the electric currents to the motors 65 by-bypassing or through the current regulator 67.